In this age and time, where the villages are rapidly being “eaten up” by the so called towns or cities, it is a matter of time and our, (I mean you and I) habitat will be no more. That will mean, there will be no more villagers (I mean you and I)! Without the villager, this column would no more be! As we used to say in school, that would lead to a vicious cycle. Talk of a vicious cycle reminds me of a one Namara who used to hail from somewhere in Nyabani, in fact, he was the defacto headmaster of Nyabani High School. While at St. Leo’s college, this guy loved the term “Vicious Cycle of Poverty” and so, if not careful, we could end up in the vicious cycle of urbanisation! It is quite queer how many of ushave gotten our children spoilt. The other day, while at Diaspoman’s home, I was astonished by a child I met there. The kid spoke very good English such that, Diaspoman was finding it difficult to cope, but when Diaspoman speaks, one would mistake his English language for tongues (like the ones spoken by our saved brethrens). He speaks with a Bush like accent, I mean the Bush of Texas a.k.a. Geroge Bush. I was tempted to think that, the Kid belongs to him, let me leave pie as pie! Talk of the spoilt kids, the kid at Diaspoman told us that, milk comes from a bicycle, meat from the fridge, etc. Now, does such a child have any village values? No comments. Now, there is this other guy I met at Diaspoman’s place, sijui he was called something like Nick, I later learnt that he was Niko, ah, the famous or is it infamous Afande Niko. He was bitterly lamenting about the status quo at his house (read home). The Chain keeper was totally messing up his life without caring at all. Save for his big mouth, he has literary been turned into a serf in his own house. He literary owns nothing good. He made us laugh when he told us of the fact that, when the children misbehave, the chain keepertells him to take away his bad children, but when they are on their best, they belong to the chain keepers! To add pepper to an open wound, Afande was so bitter because, after quitting the service (retiring from active service), he got his “imperekeza” (gratuity), he invested it wisely into buying a smallcottage. He turned the small cottage into a nice house. After that, he took the chain keeper around to impress her. A year later, he wanted to take a Bank loan by using the house as a security, but the chain keeper would not hear of any of that nonsense! She told him off, “you cannot mortgage my house, over my dead body”! Now he was lamenting, “Who owns What? The house is hers, the children are hers, what have I got left?” I think this is a wakeup call. If you wake and everything has disappeared, take heart, you are not alone; at least Afande Niko is already in the same boat!
